Nathan Karns, hugging his mom before a big-league game earlier this season, might have earned another hug by delivering his first professional hit for the Harrisburg Senators Saturday night in Richmond.

MAGIC NUMBER DOWN TO ONE: An Eastern League playoff berth sealed days ago, Harrisburg (76-64) now need just one more win or one more Erie loss to clinch the Western Division's outright title and secure home-field advantage for the playoffs. The win over Richmond (69-71) also bumped the Senators a season-high 12 games over .500. In other EL news, Trenton clinched the fourth and final playoff berth and will meet Binghamton in the other best-of-five semifinal series this week.

EIGHT-RUN OUTBURST: By sending 13 batters to the plate in the top of the fifth inning, the Senators scored eight runs for their most productive inning of the 2013 season. There were six hits, including a two-run single by Brian Jeroloman and a two-run double by Steven Souza Jr., along with three walks and a hit batsman. Richmond needed two pitchers and 48 pitches to get through the frame, which turned a 2-1 lead into a 10-1 cushion.

KARNS WINS, GETS HIS FIRST HIT: Included in that eight-run inning was an RBI single by RHP Nathan Karns. It was the 25-year-old's first professional hit. But his pitching was also high quality, and that's what matters most. Karns (10-6) allowed one run on six hits and a walk in seven innings. He struck out seven and closes the 2013 regular season with a 3.26 ERA. His 155 strikeouts currently rank second in the Eastern League. But, remember, he also started three games in May and June for the Nationals.

TEAM BATTING AVERAGE ON THE RISE: Sure, Harrisburg's .242 team batting average still ranks last in the 12-team Eastern League, but it's not nearly as ugly as it was two short weeks ago. In fact, the Senators are just two points behind Trenton (.244) and continue to lead the EL in ERA (3.42). Contributing multiple-hit efforts Saturday night were Souza (3-for-5, run, two doubles, three RBIs, stolen base), Justin Bloxom (2-for-4, two runs, two stolen bases), Ricky Hague (3-for-5, two runs, three RBIs) and Brian Jeroloman (2-for-4, run, double, three RBIs). Souza now leads the Senators in home runs (14) and stolen bases (20).

CHARITABLE SQUIRRELS: Five Richmond pitchers combined to issue 10 walks, hit a batter and throw three wild pitches. Reliever Josh Osich was the only one not to allow a run, but he was forced from the game after Jason Martinson lined a single off of his backside in the eighth. The quintet did manage to accumulate 11 strikeouts in the blowout loss.

ERIE'S PLAYOFF STARTERS: Looking ahead to the upcoming best-of-five playoff series against Erie, we learned tonight from SeaWolves beat writer Tom Reisenweber about the likely first three starters. (Remember, we still don't know if the series will start in Harrisburg or Erie Wednesday night.) Game 1 looks like RHP Drew VerHagen (1-0, 0.00 in one start vs. Senators), with RHP Warwick Saupold (0-0, 7.30 in two starts vs. Senators) in Game 2 and LHP Matt Crouse (1-2, 5.75 in four starts vs. Senators). At this point, we still don't know much about Harrisburg's rotation, other than RHP A.J. Cole is favored to start the opener. A lot more on this kind of stuff when we get closer to Wednesday.